yemen somalia parts of north africa and other locations i've always believed pakistan is more central to what have you noticed a change in the guard at the department of defense with robert gates retiring and former cia chief leon panetta getting sworn in signals this change of course to critics i see no difference between between him and robert gates and for afghanistan we now hear a presidential pledge to pull thirty three thousand troops out by september two thousand and twelve fully we're covering the surge i have now at west point well it certainly sounds like what the american people would like to hear for the first time ever a majority want u.s. troops out of afghanistan as soon as possible fifty six percent or thirty nine percent want troops there until the situation is stabilized you can see the trend is really flip flopped but what is the reality of obama's plans for troop withdrawal that thirty three thousand he's calling for is a minority of the one hundred thousand american troops that are there that's not including another forty two thousand some nato troops and ninety t